[webdev] Re: Other Content Management Systems (CMS)

[Tom Hull <thull2@xxxxxxx>]

Dale W Hodge wrote:
> 
> I recently switched two of the sites I host, www.neuralmatrix.org &
> www.dnd-automotive.com over to PostNuke. If you look at them, you can see how
> different they can appear just by changing themes -- in fact, you could easily
> swap the basic appearance in 30 seconds if you wanted.  And that is with the
> current release, the next point release will feature a new theme engine.

Themability isn't really a concern when building a single website. Although
OpenACS doesn't support CSS, I've already changed it to use CSS. Doing so was
in fact trivial.

> Overall, I think they are worth looking at for anyone who desires a content
> managed site. I wonder if perhaps they may have been a better choice for 
> Aclug's
> new site.

Grrrrrrrrr! I've spent the whole day trying to get PostNuke working. I've
poked through all of the Admin menus, banged on some PHP code, and even
poked MySQL a couple of times. I still haven't gotten to anything I think
is acceptable. But:

  1) PostNuke works with apache, which makes it easier for people to set up
     their own test systems, which makes it easier for people to develop on.
  2) The content (story/article) management tools are simpler and easier to
     work, which means that we would probably get to the point where more
     people are contributing more content earlier.
  3) The content appears to be completely stored in the database, whereas
     OpenACS is a mix of database and static files.
  4) The themes provide a potentially useful design abstraction (as well as
     a bunch of spare parts). This doesn't make much difference for the main
     body of the website, but user-selectable themes are a nice touch.
  5) Some modules (FAQ and News come to mind) are nicer. The stats module
     doesn't exist in OpenACS, and it's real nice in PostNuke. Also PostNuke
     seems to have a RSS module. (On the other hand OpenACS has a lot of
     stuff that PostNuke lacks.)
  6) PostNuke seems to be more actively developed, with more third party
     doodads, and probably more active support (but the state of the doc
     thus far is pretty lame -- the only good thing I've seen is the module
     developer doc).

OTOH:

  1) It looks to me like OpenACS has about twice as much functionality,
     maybe more. (Despite the fact that PostNuke has more script code [79k
     lines/3MB vs. 70k lines/2.5MB]; I don't agree with the argument that
     the PostNuke code is cleaner or clearer.)
  2) OpenACS works with PostgreSQL, which is generally regarded as a much
     more robust database for transactions. This is reflected not only in
     the database engine but in the SQL which is fed to it. (Substituting
     PostgreSQL for MySQL through a database abstraction may or may not
     buy a bit of performance, but doesn't buy much integrity.)
  3) My impression is that PostNuke will be significantly slower. (I'm
     running it on the same machine that runs a copy of the Christgau
     website, which I coded in PHP/MySQL, and it is much slower there.
     This machine is a 650MHz P-III; the ACLUG machine is a 133MHz
     Pentium.)
  4) We already have CVS set up to support revision control on the website
     (both openacs and aclug static content). This isn't as slick as it
     should be, but doesn't exist with PostNuke and would be harder to do.

There are probably a few more issues, but they're less clearly tilted one
way or the other. Or they're more controversial (e.g., PostNuke seems to
be heavily skewed toward running a news site, whereas OpenACS is more
generic). The issues also aren't all equal: I've seen a couple of major
projects have to abandon MySQL for PostgreSQL, and the potential problems
having to do with debugging corrupt databases worries me a lot more than
the need to write an RSS module.

However, the big problem I've observed with this project (which OpenACS
may or may not be responsible for) is that I haven't been able to put
enough time into it to get it moving. I think Dale in particular has
been frustrated with this. So let me throw down this challenge: if you
(in particular, Dale) really think PostNuke is a better way to go, let's
see some proof-of-concept.

Comments?

> --dwh
> 
> ---
> Dale W Hodge - dwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Vice Chairman & Secretary - info@xxxxxxxxx
> Air Capital Linux User's Group  (ACLUG)
> ---

-- 
/*
  *  Tom Hull * thull2 at cox.net * http://www.tomhull.com/
  */